NPR : News

Filed Under:

Growth In Incomes, Spending Slowed In 2012; Jobless Claims Jumped Last Week

By: Mark Memmott // January 31, 2013
comments

Americans' personal incomes grew by 3.5 percent in 2012, compared with 5.1 percent growth the year before, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. And it says consumer spending rose 3.6 percent last year, vs. 5 percent in 2011.

But the year ended on one strong note: in December alone, incomes rose 2.6 percent from the month before. That's the biggest one-month rise in eight years, The Wall Street Journal says. Consumer spending was up 0.2 percent in December from November.

Also this morning, the Employment and Training Administration reported that there were 368,000 first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week. That's up 38,000 from the week before. The increase is from a five-year low and puts claims back at "levels consistent with modest job growth," Reuters writes.

The week's big economic indicator is due Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. That's when the Bureau of Labor Statistics will issue its figures on job growth and unemployment in January. According to Bloomberg News, economists expect to hear that there were 165,000 jobs added to payrolls (vs. 155,000 in December) and that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.8 percent.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Arts & Culture

NPR

Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

Food

NPR

Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

Politics

NPR

Nonconservative Groups Say IRS Scrutinized Them, Too

The IRS has admitted it flagged tax-exemption requests from groups with "tea party" or "patriot" in their names starting in 2010. But some liberal groups and journalism organizations say their applications also faced long delays during the same period.

Technology

NPR

Book News: Amazon May Be Called Before Parliament Over Taxes

Also: AARP and The Nation join a growing list of ebook publishers; Hilary Mantel on Jane Austen; Anne Applebaum on Sheryl Sandberg.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.